I'm going to call LEGO in the next couple of days, after I can look through more of my collection to get an accurate count. So far I've found over 20 that look like this and it's just the white ones ...

Out of curiosity, did these come from an individual source, or is this a random sample across multiple sets? Based on Bricklink inventory, they seem to come from mostly standard sets, but I do notice they are showing up in some of the games (3850 Meteor Strike and 3854 Frog Rush). I'm wondering if that might be a factor.

And I'm guessing your collection is mixed so you have no idea if they're from the same batch, making it an isolated problem, or if these were from a broad selection of sets over recent years and meaning it's a huge problem just beginning to surface.

Mine seem to be fine in all the colours I have them in... usually white and trans colours have seen more cracking in my experience, but my cheese slopes haven't been used a hell of a lot.

Have you used these ones much? do you push down hard? do you remove from the groove or do you tilt the brick against the stud from the wider edge? I'm not suggesting it's your fault in the slightest, the pieces SHOULDN'T be splitting like that - ABS should be far more hard wearing in terms of life/longevity (these pieces were only introduced in 2004) so even given their maximum age, they should still be fairly free from fatigue... just interested to know what sort of usage the cheese slices have seen and whether certain techniques result in more fatiguing than others.

I've got similar sized pieces that have been in my collection for three or four times that long and aren't showing anything like the same problem... although I did have to replace both Luke and Leia's arms in my 7190 Falcon in around 2007 - for similar looking splits near the hands... perhaps there is an issue with thin cross-section material in white.

ABS in it's raw state is semi-translucent ivory tending toward white, so perhaps it is a chemical-make-up issue for all white pieces in thin cross-section. IIRC from my materials technology lectures, pigments and other such additives will affect the durability properties of the final product in the same way as the heat of the plastic when injected, the heat of the mold, cycle times of the injection mold machine and whether there is any cooling of the mold between cycles.

So many factors could be at play, I doubt you can make a case for replacement as they are used pieces, but I think it's important that TLC be made aware of such a serious issue regarding the life and quality of their product.

Having said all that, I did find a lot of my old (25yr+) 1 x 1 trans-red plates had split in half - but I was a biter* as a child.

I haven't had any break, regardless of color and they get hammered on by my kids. Did you have these on a MOC or model that was in direct sunlight for long periods? I remember reading somewhere that leaving pieces in direct sunlight too long can make them brittle.

I've have several crack just like that. I know that several of the ones I had crack came from the ploy-bag mini V-19's (8031). Only my white have cracked so far. I'm sure some from other sources have cracked, but I can't be sure of where they came from.

I was going through my built Mini's and was surprised to see that both of the white cheese slopes on the back of Republic Attack Shuttle were cracked. I put it together about 6 months ago, and haven't even looked at it since.

CloneEmperor wrote:I was going through my built Mini's and was surprised to see that both of the white cheese slopes on the back of Republic Attack Shuttle were cracked. I put it together about 6 months ago, and haven't even looked at it since.

Your post prompted me to check this set, one I forgot about. I checked most of my other sets with these slopes earlier and found nothing. I took a look at the Mini Attack Shuttle, there they were on both slopes. They were miniscule, about a millimeter or two in length. I anticipate they will get worse. Now I need to do a complete inventory of all my cheese slopes.

CloneEmperor wrote:I was going through my built Mini's and was surprised to see that both of the white cheese slopes on the back of Republic Attack Shuttle were cracked. I put it together about 6 months ago, and haven't even looked at it since.

I just checked mine that was assembled about a year ago, put in the back corner of a shelf and forgot about... Very small cracks starting to form.

Oddly, the other one that sat on my shelf at work that had 2 baths in fire suppression foam aren't cracked at all.

I wonder how difficult this is going to be to get replacements. Usually they need the set number, then the code from the instructions....then you are limited to the quantity that came in that single set. I like others are finding more and more cracks in just about every color (except dark green so far).